1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to fabrication of thin films for planar energy and charge storage and energy conversion and, in particular, thin films deposited of titanium and titanium oxides, sub oxides, and rare earth doped titanium oxides and sub oxides for planar energy and charge storage and energy conversion.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Currently, titanium oxide layers are not utilized commercially in energy storage, charge storage, or energy conversion systems because such layers are difficult to deposit, difficult to etch, are known to have large concentrations of defects, and have poor insulation properties due to a propensity for oxygen deficiency and the diffusion of oxygen defects in the layers. Additionally, amorphous titania is difficult to deposit due to its low recrystalization temperature (about 250° C.), above which the deposited layer is often a mixture of crystalline anatase and rutile structures.
However, such amorphous titania layers, if they can be deposited in sufficient quality, have potential due to their high optical index, n˜2.7, and their high dielectric constant, k less than or equal to about 100. Further, they have substantial chemical stability. There are no known volatile halides and titania is uniquely resistant to mineral acids. Amorphous titania is thought to have the further advantage that there are no grain boundary mechanisms for electrical breakdown, chemical corrosion, or optical scattering. It is also well known that the sub oxides of titanium have unique and useful properties. See, e.g., Hayfield, P. C. S., “Development of a New Material—Monolithic Ti4O7 Ebonix Ceramic”, Royal Society Chemistry, ISBN 0-85405-984-3, 2002. Titanium monoxide, for example, is a conductor with a uniquely stable resistivity with varying temperature. Additionally, Ti2O3, which can be pinkish in color, is known to have semiconductor type properties. However, these materials have not found utilization because of their difficult manufacture in films and their susceptibility to oxidation. Further, Ti4O7 demonstrates both useful electrical conductivity and unusual resistance to oxidation. Ti4O7, however, is also difficult to fabricate, especially in thin film form.
Additional to the difficulty of fabricating titanium oxide or sub oxide materials in useful thin film form, it also has proven difficult to dope these materials with, for example, rare earth ions, in useful or uniform concentration.
Therefore, utilization of titanium oxide and suboxide films, with or without rare earth doping, has been significantly limited by previously available thin film processes. If such films could be deposited, their usefulness in capacitor, battery, and energy conversion and storage technologies would provide for many value-added applications.
Current practice for construction of capacitor and resistor arrays and for thin film energy storage devices is to utilize a conductive substrate or to deposit the metal conductor or electrode, the resistor layer, and the dielectric capacitor films from various material systems. Such material systems for vacuum thin films, for example, include copper, aluminum, nickel, platinum, chrome, or gold depositions, as well as conductive oxides such as ITO, doped zinc oxide, or other conducting materials.
Materials such as chrome-silicon monoxide or tantalum nitride are known to provide resistive layers with 100 parts per million or less resistivity change per degree Centigrade for operation within typical operating parameters. A wide range of dielectric materials such as silica, silicon nitride, alumina, or tantalum pentoxide can be utilized for the capacitor layer. These materials typically have dielectric constants k of less than about twenty four (24). In contrast, TiO2 either in the pure rutile phase or in the pure amorphous state can demonstrate a dielectric constant as high as 100. See, e.g., R. B. van Dover, “Amorphous Lanthanide-Doped TiO2 Dielectric Films,” Appl. Phys Lett., Vol. 74, no. 20, p. 3041-43 (May 17, 1999).
It is well known that the dielectric strength of a material decreases with increasing value of dielectric constant k for all dielectric films. A ‘figure of merit’ (FM) is therefore obtained by the product of the dielectric constant k and the dielectric strength measured in Volts per cm of dielectric thickness. Capacitive density of 10,000 to 12,000 pico Farads/mm2 is very difficult to achieve with present conductors and dielectrics. Current practice for reactive deposition of titanium oxide has achieved a figure-of-merit, FM, of about 50 (k MV/cm). See J. Y. Kim et al., “Frequency-Dependent Pulsed Direct Current Magnetron Sputtering of Titanium Oxide Films,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 19(2), 2001.
Therefore, there is an ongoing need for titanium oxide and titanium sub-oxide layers, and rare-earth doped titanium oxide and titanium sub-oxide layers, for various applications.